101 Kids Activities --- New Book Review

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 Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Page Street Publishing Company. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I added links to the particular products for your convenience, but not for any compensation. 

Hazel's last day of school is tomorrow. Her last day of Pre-K! Now I need to figure out how to entertain her for the summer. Are you in a similar position? Today I get the pleasure of reviewing a book that is full of so many great ideas I started bookmarking mine and realized I was just marking every activity as perfect to do this summer. The book is 101 Kids Activities That Are the Bestest Funnest Ever! by Holly Homer and Rachel Miller of Kids Activities Blog. It is now available at bookstores everywhere including Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

From 101 Kids Activities by Holly Homer and Rachel Miller,
printed with permission of Page Street Publishing June 2014

Now before I tell you about what we have already tried from the book, I have to share that this book is like having a hard copy of Kids Activities Blog. If you are not familiar with their blog, you should be. They are regular participants in our Sharing Saturday and have been featured many times.  It is one of my favorite places to go for ideas. So having a hard copy of their ideas is just wonderful to me. I can see Hazel and I doing many things from this book this summer. The book is divided into four parts: Boredom Busters, Crafts, Games and Simple Science. All four sections are full of amazing ideas that children will love.

The activity we tried is DIY Straw Building Set. It is rather simple and yet it is a brilliant idea. You need flexible straws, pipe cleaners and clear tape to make this building set. You could use other things besides tape, but I found that to be the easiest. I started making these triangle shaped builders (for lack of better word) and I started to put them together with the plan of building a cave for Hazel. She saw me making them and wanted to instantly put them together. She made a pyramid with four of them.

After I told her of my plan to make her a tent/cave with them so she could put one of her cloths over it, she decided hers would be a tent for Ducky. She put a small silk over it. We need to adjust the size and shape of the silk still, but Ducky has his own tent.

Then while I was busy cleaning up or doing something else, she decided to make her own triangles and shapes for me. She did not overlap the straws, but hers still held.

At this point let me to tell you about the way I found easiest to make these. After trying different orders of doing things, I found the easiest was to begin by sticking a pipe cleaner partially in a straw and then putting another straw over the rest of the pipe cleaner. Squeezing one of the ends of a straw (almost folding it over itself) I pushed it into the other straw. Then you stick another pipe cleaner in the newest straw and it will be sticking out. You add a straw and repeat the overlap. If you want a triangle, you bend the straws at the flexible bends and make the shape. Overlap your final straw ends and the shape is complete. You can add however many straws you want to make different shapes.

Then we taped the shapes together in the way we wanted them and got creative. I am still working on the cave, but I can only imagine what else Hazel will come up with. She absolutely loves them!

The Start of the Cave

This is just one activity from the book. It has so many great ideas in it and you can easily expand on them. Plus they all need things that for the most part you will already have around your house.  Many of them will build the imagination and then of course there is the whole science section. So if you are wondering what to do this summer with your kids, pick up a copy of this book. You will not be disappointed! This is definitely one of my favorite craft books for kids crafts and activities.

Kids Activities Blog is running some giveaways of the book. Here is a chance for you to win your own copy! You can also enter to win one here for the next couple of days.

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